Is a handrail required for glass balustrades and glass railings?

There is a lot of confusion regarding the subject of the requirement for a handrail on glass balustrades or glass railings.

You see on all the glossy magazines glass expanses and glass railings which have no handrails on the top. This is very attractive and unobtrusive, but is this legal?

In order to ascertain this matter we need to ask the following question:

Regarding glass balustrades what are the regulations in regards to the need for a handrail, or lack there of?

It seems that some building control officers have allowed balconies on newbuild properties to go on without handrails but this has recently come to light on a project in Jersey and a handrail was then instructed to be installed in order to have the balcony signed off. It has come to light that a job with glass railings that had no handrail would be refused permission until a handrail was installed, not only a handrail but one that met the regulations.

Can this be? It seems unthinkable that other building control officers will pass a glass balustrade without a top rail. Is it up to each officer in his area?

With further research, it is now clear. It is actually quite black or white and we refer to BS 6180: 1999 "Barriers in and about buildings - Code of practice" , Which is the governing standard in regards to balcony railings, balcony balustrades or guarding in the United Kingdom.

On page 9 under section 8.5.2 "Handrail attachment" it reads "Where the barrier protects a difference in level greater than 600mm, a handrail should always be used. Continuous fixing should be used for fixing the handrail to the glass, as individual fixing points may introduce unacceptable stress concentrations. The handrail should be attached to the glass in such a manner that, should the glass panel fracture, the handrail (a) will remain in position; (b) will not fail if the design load is applied across the resulting gap"

This leaves NO room for interpretation, The standard states clearly that a handrail "SHOULD ALWAYS BE USED" there is no question there and this handrail must be strong enough to stand up to the loads - EVEN IF ONE OF THE GLASSES BREAKS and not fail.

So the conclusion is: Glass balustrades MUST have handrails!